Osdal (Harmony War Series Book 3) (3 page)

The section didn’t even bat an eye lid; they’d fought across Masoul, they’d bled together and seen their friends die, so a bit of nudity might get a few interested looks, but communal showers were nothing to get excited about. It was just a shower. There were handsome guys and beautiful women and the showers had been used for more than just casual looking.

Troopers respected one another like brothers and sisters. They usually saw people outside of their platoons as possible one night stands and a bit of fun, but few committed to anything serious, and sexual misconduct got you shot. No one wanted to have a would-be rapist on board.

Tyler and Alexis had gone down the commitment route, as shown by the tattoos they’d got on their ring fingers. Rings got in the way of their armored gloves, but tats were fine.

She sat on the bed and pulled her boots on her smart clothes, which clung tight to her form. Tyler sat there with his hands behind his head, smiling the entire time.

She crawled on top of him and kissed him, and Tyler felt his arms wrapping around her, pulling her body to his own.

“Maybe we should go to the library tonight?” he asked, biting her ear.

He felt her body tense in pleasure, but she pulled away.

“You know we have to do all of the paperwork for the transfers,” she said, and her eyes went distant for a moment. “Two hours till they arrive,” she said apologetically.

“Plenty of time to go right now,” Tyler grinned.

She tried not to smile, her face betraying her as she bit her lower lip and moved against him.

“What do you say Mrs. Victor?” he asked, his large hands resting on her hips.

“That you better hurry the hell up!”

“Have fun, try not to get it on the upholstery, feel sorry for the bastards that have to clean the library,” Waz said, getting laughs from the section and Tyler.

“You should try telling Helen that a library is meant to be
quiet,
” Alexis shot back.

“Not my fault if she had a good time, oh, come on Horley, you and your goddamn Ace,” Waz complained, as Horley smiled happily at disrupting Waz’s attempt to go it alone in Euchre.

Alexis and Tyler escaped to the hallway, holding hands.

“So, what have you heard about the newbies?” Alexis asked.

Tyler’s smile faltered. “It looks like they’re new, so we’re getting their Troopers that just completed basic. The other generals want to look good so they’re sticking with their veterans.”

“Why the long face? We’ll get them into shape,” Alexis said, hitting him with her hip.

“These ones didn’t go through the basic we went through; they just had to meet the Bare Minimum, none of them have been shot,” Tyler said, seeing Alexis wince. “But we’ll change them, though it’s not going to be easy.”

“When are things ever easy?”

“Ummm, can I get back to you on that one?”

She laughed, the rich noise making Tyler’s grin turn into a full fledged smile. They shared everything, and she always made Tyler feel better for it. There were no lies, they told each other what they were thinking and that was why Tyler could never think to be with another person. He loved being with her, and time apart hurt him more than he would have thought possible.

When they met they had been rival gang members, but joining Earth’s Military Forces and becoming Troopers together had turned their casual interest in one another into fully fledged love.

“I love you,” he said, squeezing her hand slightly.

She looked to at him, her eyes shining. They had only a trace of the veteran in them; the sad part that knew that their relationship could be ended by one stray bullet.

“I love you too,” she said, accepting that vulnerability as he had, and brushing it aside.

Tyler kissed her cheek.

“Morning you two,” Mark said, looking sweaty.

“Hey Mark!” Alexis smiled.

“Bro!” Tyler beamed.

Mark gave one of his rare, proud and pleased smiles. While Mark and Tyler didn’t share a mother or father, they were brothers, and they’d taken on the same last name to make it official.

Mark was possibly the deadliest person Tyler knew, but he knew the soft-hearted bastard that lay under all of the muscle and training.

He didn’t fight to inflict pain; he did it to save the Troopers around him.

“Remember two hours, don’t be late Tyler!” Mark said, glancing to Alexis, clearly relying on her more than Tyler to get him to the shuttle bay.

“He’ll be there,” Alexis said, looking to Tyler.

“Have fun,” Mark rumbled, laughing as he walked past.

“So why doesn’t he get another girlfriend?” Alexis asked when they were past. Mark saw her like a sister, and she was invested in seeing he was okay.

“After Lucille hooked up with a med tech a week after they broke up, and she said she couldn’t deal with him being away, it cut deep. I don’t think he trusts anyone romantically.”

“He’ll find someone,” Alexis said with a smile.

Tyler smiled as well, pushing those thoughts aside as he put an arm around her and squeezed.

“Then he’ll never want to let them go, he’ll want to wake up beside her every morning and kiss her all day, to hear her giggle.”

“You talking about Mark or you?” Alexis asked, smiling.

“Who’s Mark?” Tyler gave her a confused look.

“I heard that!” Mark said from down the hall, not even looking back.

***

Jerome found Mark in the cafeteria, and he sat down with the big man, taking a bite of his bagel.

“You look over the messages from the yard yet?”

“Nope, I was hoping you did, and we need a better name than just ‘The Yard’,” Mark said, shovelling cod into his mouth.

“That stuff is so bland,” Jerome said, pointing at the fish.

“I think eating paper would be more interesting, we’ve had this stuff for three weeks straight,” Mark said, automatically dismissing the time he’d been in a cryo pod in between.

Jerome’s face wrinkled in distaste as Mark made a grunt of agreement.

“So you read it?” Mark asked.

“Yeah,” Jerome said, his voice quiet. “Quentin is dead.”

Mark paused between bites, his fork lowering to the table. His jaw worked and he sighed. “It was bound to happen at some point while we were out here.”

Mark had lost a great number of people. Death made him numb, but he understood his feelings, knowing only too well that he would get over the loss. He would remember Quentin as the man that had looked after him and Tyler. He pulled himself together and ate the fish by rote repetition. “What else?”

“The yard got a contract to make two carriers every year for the next twenty years. The mines have expanded, and we’ve recouped our losses. The greenhouses are expanding; we control eighty percent of the market. There were some larger companies that tried to lean on us to take power and other items from them, but with the contract to make the carriers, they’ve backed off, and a bidding war has meant less overhead costs. A subsidiary has been created, as per our plan, and we’re not just making ships now, we’re also trading across Sol and offering repairs to other ships in the system. We’re hiring people right out of the EMF,” Jerome went over the high points, and he still couldn’t really believe how their investment and their people’s work had turned into a fledgling corporation.

“Well it sounds like everything is going well.”

“Yes, Madeline Costa has also requested to buy another abandoned yard. With the hostilities in the sphere, there is going to be an increased need for shipping once systems are reclaimed; apparently Masoul is producing more than current ships can move. Seems Harmony’s put a fire under everyone’s ass. The CEOs are using it as an incentive to push production higher. Costa wants to make freighters, the biggest Earth and Her Colonies have ever seen, tens of times bigger than the regular freighters,” Jerome said.

“Does it look like a good idea to you?”

“Even before the war, the freighters were barely keeping up, having larger versions on a constant rotation and based in Earth instead of out here in the sphere... I think it’s a good idea,” Jerome confirmed.

“Okay, do it,” Mark said.

“I haven’t even gone over the numbers!”

“Ahh, I trust you,” Mark smiled, and finished off his fish. “We should get a move on to greet our new people.”

Jerome stuffed his bagel in his mouth and grabbed his tray.

At one time throwing food away would have been criminal; food on Earth was a costly thing, and anything remotely like real food and not supplement bars was premium product.

They walked for the lifts that would take them to the flight deck. EMFC Reclaimer and the other carriers that were waiting for them were matching speeds, seven carriers, the largest force assembled heading towards their next battle.

“I’ve heard that the officers are going to get moved around; Ortiz might be taking Dalton’s spot as Division Sergeant Major.

Dalton would be shifted to Major and Nerva gets a Force Sergeant Major. Nerva doesn’t want to be stuck behind a desk. Heard that he threatened to get in a fight just to get demoted and put back with his people,” Jerome grinned, proud of his commanding officer.

“Who would replace Ortiz?” Mark asked.

“A newly promoted Regiment Sergeant Major from the Indomitable,” Jerome said as they stepped into a lift.

“We got any info on him?”

“As much information as we have on the replacements.”

“Well that makes me feel fucking awesome,” Mark grumbled, and a few looked in their direction.

***

Nerva kicked the command door open, and the Lieutenant that made to stop him got pushed to the side as Nerva continued in.

His face showed nothing, not the simmering rage beneath his calm exterior or a sigh from releasing at least some of his anger.

She probably didn’t deserve that,
he thought as he moved through.

In the Trooper’s race, sexuality and sex didn’t matter, and there was no such rule as do not hit a woman, they’d damned well hit you.

Domashev looked up from the latest reports.

“I’m going on the ground or I’ll make you bust me down,” Nerva’s eyes cold as he, stopped a few feet away from the man.

Someone, one of the old politicking officers, made to talk, and Domashev cut them off with a look.

“Understood, it should have said that on your promotion slip,” Domashev said, his eyes looking over the others in the room; one of them must have changed the slip.

Gazes averted. They were all favor callers and corporation wannabes. They couldn’t even take a stare like a Private.

“I have a special project I need you and your old division to look into,” Domashev stood and waved Nerva to follow him.

The others followed.

Nerva was taken out of the command center and to an adjacent office. Daniel Moretti, the Intelligence Ministry’s current expert on Harmony and former right hand man of Harper, the leader of Harmony resistance on Masoul, waved them greetings as he smoked a cigar, his feet up on his desk and a surface in his lap.

“He needs to get surface side so we can start messing with Osdal’s lines. Masoul taught us that information from the ground can make sure we don’t get NRs right as we’re launching,” Domashev said.

“Well we’ve thought that for a number of years, but it would be an expensive clean up; are we being given clearance?” Nerva asked.

“That would depend on what our plan is,” Moretti said, as the door locked behind Nerva and Domashev. He put down his surface and pulled his feet off of the desk.

“After seeing the tactics we used on Masoul the higher ups are interested in developing small groups to insert themselves into Osdal, get the lay of the land and then turn it into chaos before the main body even arrives. I don’t think it will work on Fernix or Housapel, but Osdal, the population seems to be split, something we can use to our advantage.”

“You said we?” Nerva said, as Domashev took a seat.

Moretti let out a rush of smoke and pulled the cigar from his mouth. “That’s because I’m going down with the Triple Twos.”

Nerva nodded slowly, a plan forming in his mind. “So we best think of a way to get you in-system without onlookers.”

“Thankfully we still have a few shuttles we grabbed from Masoul,” Domashev said.

“So what’s the objectives?” Nerva asked.

“Find out what Harmony knows, see what their capabilities are and prepare to hit all of the areas controlled by Harmony at once. Hell, if we can get into their sensor grids, then we can get our forces right next to Osdal3 and Actual. We don’t give them any time to react, and drop Troopers right on them while they’re still scrambling,” Moretti said.

“Ambitious plan, but any information we have can save lives,” Domashev nodded.

“And I’ll be going with my people, not sitting back on the carrier?” Nerva asked.

“We’ll be bringing Reclaimer into the Oort cloud, we’ll hide it in the asteroids and send shuttles out to start working their way through the system. You will report to me only. I wanted to make you a higher rank to give you the most control. I want you to break your new Force into two groups, one to create chaos and the other to report information higher. Once they’re out in Osdal, they are to act on their own and carry out their tasks without any need for extra orders. You’ve got nine months before Reclaimer is in position and ready to deploy our first units,” Domashev said.